We've tried Stratterra and Focalin in the past. Now he's on concerta and tenex. He gets 1/2 mg tenex and concerta in the am, another 1/2 a tenex after school, and a whole tenex at bedtime (he also gets melatonin at bedtime). He's never slept well, pre meds, so I am sure that concerta doesn't help, but it's always been this way. The concerta (and Focalin before it) decreases his appetite, so that is a struggle. We also had a pretty big crash coming off of the concerta, but the tenex helps quite a bit with that.

Joey was on Focalin and Vyvanse at the beginning. One gave him horrid stomach aches and the other spiked his heart rate WAY high. Like almost went to the ER high, but I worry about his heart. He was born with ASD.
Then they put him on Adderall and it has been a HUGE difference for him. He is able to function in school now and we have no bad effects from it at all. He was on 5mg in first grade and he was bumped to 10mg. We don't medicate in the summer at all though. I don't see the need. He is home all summer and always out and about running around, and the Adderall kinda keeps him a little subdued and that's just not "him". I completely see the need for it at school though. He knows he needs it to focus (he calls them his "focus pills"). He was also on Clonidine b/c the Adderall kept him awake until midnight. We ran out on a Friday of a long weekend, so I bought Melatonin and that works just as well, so we took him off the Clonidine permanently.

My son, 8 and in 3rd grade has been on Concerta since before 1st grade. He has ADHD and it's helped him tremendously. He does have a crash some days when he gets home from school and trouble sleeping. We've recently started him on melatonin at bedtime and what a difference. Good luck! ADHD can be a hard road and I'm glad you're getting help.

Since my last post, we have switched to Strattera. So far no side effects other than the first few weeks on it we had a major attitude. He still has a slight one, but not nearly as bad. It takes several weeks to see how we'll it truly works and he's only been on it maybe 6 weeks or so.